376-377). I have ventured to affix the exact
date "April 9, 1656" to the two letters, because it is on that day
that I find Lockhart's departure on his embassy definitely settled
in the Council Order Books. Before "Aug. 1658" Lockhart had known
Louis XIV. and the Cardinal intimately for more than two years and
needed no introduction.]

(LXXIV.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _April_ 17,
1656:--Another extremely polite letter of the Protector to his
Swedish Majesty, marking a farther stage in the proceedings of the
Swedish Treaty.--That Treaty had been going on at Dorset House, the
Swedish Ambassador and the Swedish Resident, continuing their
colloquies with Whitlocke. Fiennes, and Strickland, about pitch,
tar, hemp, mutual privileges of trade between England and Sweden,
trade also with Prussia, Poland, and Russia, and all the other
items of the Treaty, and the Ambassador always pushing on the
business and chafing at the slow progress made. Again and again he
had taken serious offence at something. Once it was because,
waiting on the Protector at Whitehall, he had been kept
half-an-hour before the Protector appeared. It was with difficulty
he was prevented from going away without seeing his Highness; "he
durst not for his head," he said, "admit of such dishonour to his
master"; he had to be pacified by an apology. Then, when he did see
the Protector, he had fresh cause for dissatisfaction. The
propositions of the Treaty, as agreed upon so far between the
Commissioners and the Ambassador, having been reported to the
Council, and there having been a discussion on them there, Thurloe
taking a chief part, new hesitations and difficulties had arisen,
so that, when Cromwell conversed with Count Bundt, the Count was
amazed to find his Highness cooler about the Treaty altogether than
he had expected, and again harping on Protestant interests and the
necessity of including the Dutch. The Count seems then to have
broken bounds in his talk about the Protector to Whitlocke and
others. In his own country, Sweden, he said, "when a man professed
sincerity, they understood it to be plain and clear dealing"; if a
man meant _Yea_ he said _Yea_, and if he meant _No_
he said _No_; but in England it seemed to be different. The
explanations and soft words of Whitlocke and the rest having calmed
him down again, the Treaty proceeded.--One of the most important
meetings at Dors